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San Diegans can learn about an innovative scientific method to search for offshore oil and how glaciers behave during climate change, in a lecture series that aims to make science easy to understand.

The Birch Aquarium -- based at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, part of the University of California San Diego in La Jolla -- hosts monthly gatherings with Scripps researchers who discuss their work and real-life issues, such as global warming and the search for alternative fuels.

The remaining sessions in the winter series will be held 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Jan. 10 and Feb. 14.

Admission is $8. Students and educators pay $5. Admission includes entry to the Birch Aquarium and parking. Light refreshments will be served.

JAN. 10 -- "Postponing the end of oil: The search for offshore energy resources"

Scripps scientist Steve Constable will discuss a type of geophysical tool that searches for offshore oil reserves using electromagnetics. Although this type of surveying has recently decreased, it's become a "firmly established" technology, Constable said in a recent research paper.

FEB. 14 -- "The birth of icebergs: glacier calving and ice-quakes"

Scripps glaciologist Fabian Walter will describe a phenomenon called "calving," in which ice breaks off from glaciers to form icebergs. Walter also will discuss techniques normally applied to the study of earthquakes that are being used to understand calving and better predict how glaciers interact with oceans during climate change.